Makeover of menu is whopper of a task

Burger King’s new items ape archrival

By Candice Choi-Associated Press

MIAMI — When Burger King set about to fix its ailing empire, the fast-food giant started by scrutinizing everything on the menu — even the mayonnaise.

A group of Burger King executives and franchisees last year sat through a lengthy presentation, complete with charts and graphs on how oils and eggs affect the quality of the spread. A blind taste test of 30 varieties followed. The verdict: They liked the one Burger King was already using.

It wasn’t the only one. Over the past year, Burger King evaluated all of its ingredients from the bacon to the cheese slices it serves on its chargrilled burgers as part of a yearlong quest to reverse years of slumping sales of its Whoppers and fries.

The result: On Monday, it plans to launch a lineup of smoothies, frappe coffees, chicken strips and snack wraps. The 10 new items mark Burger King’s biggest menu expansion since the chain opened its doors in 1954.

Burger King’s food odyssey shows how grueling it can be for a fast-food company to come up with new menu items — a process most Americans aren’t aware of when they’re handed a bag at a drive-thru window. Burger King is the latest chain to revamp its menu as part of the fast-food industry’s move away from its nearly single-minded courtship of young men.

Once the lifeblood of the industry, those junk-food fanatics were particularly hard-hit by the economic downturn. At the same time, Americans generally have been demanding healthier options.

Burger King has failed to evolve even as competitors have gone after new customers with breakfast items and healthier fare. Last year, Wendy’s for the first time edged out Burger King as the nation’s No. 2 burger chain behind McDonald’s.

To stem the decline, Burger King executives last year decided to remodel its aging system of 7,200 stores to make them more contemporary, redesign worker uniforms with aprons so they stay clean and even serve the iconic Whopper in cardboard cartons instead of paper burger wrapping for the first time in more than 20 years. The food, however, is at the heart of its plan.

Consumers have longed for more food options at Burger King, but the revamp is a gamble. The new menu may not go far enough to differentiate Burger King from its competitors.

After all, there are striking similarities between Burger King’s new items and the offerings of its much-bigger rival, McDonald’s. The Golden Arches already rolled out specialty salads in 2003, snack wraps in 2006, premium coffee drinks in 2009, and fruit smoothies in 2010.

“Being an innovator is critical in the fast-food industry,”said Darren Tristano, an analyst for researcher Technomic Inc. But in recent years, he said, Burger King has been more of a follower.

Burger King executives don’t deny that its new items are pretty close to those on McDonald’s popular menu. But they say the new menu was created as a result of Burger King’s own research.

“Consumers wanted more choices,” said Steve Wiborg, president of Burger King’s North America operations. “Not just healthy choices, but choices they could get at the competition.”